Solar module vendor gets $20M in funding

SAN FRANCISCO—Semprius Inc., a provider high-concentration photovoltaic (HCPV) solar modules, recently secured $20 million in its first tranche of series C venture fundraising, the company said Wednesday (June 29).

Siemens Venture Capital led the investment round and was joined by ARCH Venture Partners, Applied Ventures, Illinois Ventures, Intersouth Partners, In-Q-Tel and GVC Investment, according to Semiprius (Durham, N.C.). The company said it would use the funding to construct a pilot HCPV module production plant to scale up and optimize its process for subsequent large-capacity plants.

"Demand for CPV is expected to grow exponentially over the next several years to greater than 6 gigawatts by 2020," said Joe Carr, Semprius president and CEO, in a statement.

"Semprius modules have been under on-sun testing for several years now with excellent field performance," Carr said. "From our proprietary micro-cell technology to the enclosure and everything in between, we’ve designed our modules to be efficient, low-cost and reliable."

This is extremely important now that many are dumping nuclear energy. HCPV is far more scaleable than flat panel collectors. Two square meters of collection surface has approximately 1 kilowatt of incident thermal energy of which 40 percent can be easily converted to electricity and for stored heated medium and electiric power during dark time (Also for domestic hot water between midnight and sunrise + 2 hours.